The General Administration of Customs (GAC) has named on its website 54 trading companies to be closely monitored for their alleged involvement in smuggling.

The companies, including 19 in Guangdong and 16 in Shanghai, were either charged with smuggling, or convicted of smuggling goods worth at least five million yuan (US$667,000), or received administrative sanctions for smuggling twice in a year.

They will also be highlighted in the GAC clearance system, which will alert Customs officers to any items they try to take through any port.

Goods from blacklisted companies would be inspected box by box, and the filing of new processing trade contracts would be rejected, said a source with the GAC.

The GAC has also put 195 law-abiding companies on its favored list for their observation of laws and regulations in the business, taxation, foreign exchange, and banking sectors.

The companies on the "red list" can be fast-tracked through Customs, said the source.

Since 2004, the GAC has been publishing annual "black and red lists". To date, 240 companies have appeared on the blacklist and 542 on the "red list".

(Xinhua News Agency August 9, 2007)